Eley eyeing up fourth Winter Olympics

28 May 2014 / 09:11

Short track speed skater Jon Eley is eyeing up a fourth Winter Olympics after deciding not walk away from the sport.

Eley was chosen as Team GB’s flag bearer for the Sochi Winter Games earlier this year, going on to finish seventh in the 500m and 25th in the 1000m in his third Olympics having also competed in Vancouver and Torino.

Once the dust had settled in Russia Eley went on to claim 5000m relay bronze at the World Championships in Montreal, the same medal he won six years earlier in Gangneung.

Nearing his 30th birthday he seriously considered calling it a day there but Eley, who was part of the British 5,000m relay team that broke the world record in February 2011, admits he has since had second thoughts.

"Once I got back home from the World Championships and talked with the coaching staff and my own family, I thought I would miss it if I walked away now," Eley told the Nottingham Post.

"And I have still got things I want to achieve. I'd like to get closer to the world record, which would be nice, too.

"It's [2018 Winter Olympics] a long way away, but it's a goal, definitely. There's a few stepping stones before that.

“We've got a couple of World Championships and, if all goes well with helping the younger athletes in the team to develop, it will be a real fight to get to the next Olympics."